Archaeology News

Archaeologists Find 7,000-Year-Old Stone Monuments in Northern Arabia

A mustatil in the Nefud Desert, northern Arabia. Image credit: Huw Groucutt.
Aug 25, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archaeologists has found and studied 104 enigmatic stone structures called ‘mustatils’ in the southern part of the Nefud Desert in northern Arabia. They’ve also provided the first chronometric age estimate for this type of structure — a radiocarbon date of 5000 BCE — and described their landscape positions, architecture and associated culture. A mustatil in the Nefud Desert, northern Arabia. Image credit:...

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An aerial photo of the Canaanite fortress near Gal On in central Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists Unearth Canaanite Fortress in Central Israel

Aug 25, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered the ruins of a 3,200-year-old Canaanite fortress near Gal On, a kibbutz in central...

A hoard of Islamic gold coins dating from the 9th century CE, found near Yavne in Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem / Israel Antiquities Authority.

Huge Trove of Gold Coins from Abbasid Period Unearthed in Israel

Aug 25, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists and volunteers has unearthed a hoard of 1,100-year-old Islamic gold coins near the city of Yavne in the Central District of Israel. A...

Vertical field section of 43,000-year-old bedding grass from Border Cave, South Africa. Scale bar - 10 mm. Image credit: Wadley et al, doi: 10.1126/science.abc7239.

Archaeologists Find 200,000-Year-Old Grass Beds in South African Cave

Aug 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of grass bedding used to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working by Paleolithic...

‘To the King’ two-winged seal impression. Image credit: Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth 2,700-Year-Old Administrative Storage Center

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has uncovered the ruins of an important administrative storage center from the 8th-7th...

Terraced banana cultivation site at Wagadagam, Mabuyag Island, Australia. Image credit: Australian National University.

Torres Strait Islanders Cultivated Bananas 2,145 Years Ago

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

New research suggests Indigenous people on the tiny island of Mabuyag in the western Torres Strait, Australia, practiced banana (Musa cultivars) cultivation...

Mosaic floor of the Byzantine-period church at Kfar Kama, Israel. Image credit: Alex Wiegmann, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Byzantine-Period Church with Colorful Mosaics Unearthed in Israel

Aug 12, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Kinneret Academic College have uncovered the ruins of a 1,300-year-old church at the Circassian...

Various types of fluted points and preforms from Manayzah, Yemen: (1) double-fluted preform on a plano-convex elongated bifacial piece; (2) broken fluted preform on a bifacial elongated piece with symmetrical section; (3) base-fluted projectile point; (4 and 5) tip-fluted projectile points. Image credit: Crassard et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236314.

Neolithic People in Arabia Used Same Fluting Technology as Ancient Native Americans

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has excavated and examined 8,000-year-old projectile points (spear- and arrowheads) at two sites in Yemen and Oman....

A camelid figurine made of Spondylus shell and a rolled gold sheet found in a stone offering box from Lake Titicaca. Image credit: T. Seguin, Université libre de Bruxelles.

Archaeologists Find Shell Llama and Gold Foil in Inca Offering Box from Lake Titicaca

Aug 5, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists from the Pennsylvania State University and the Université libre de Bruxelles have found a stone offering box near a reef close to the north-eastern...

Lagoon on Teti’aroa. Image credit: Guillaume Molle.

Tiny Polynesian Atoll was Holiday Getaway for Tahitian Royalty

Aug 4, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists has uncovered two ancient archery platforms and a huge open-air altar on the Polynesian atoll of Teti’aroa, once owned by Hollywood...

Stonehenge. Image credit: Regina Wolfs.

Archaeologists Pinpoint Source of Stonehenge’s Sarsen Megaliths

Jul 31, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the UK and South Africa has discovered that most of the hulking sandstone boulders — called sarsens — that make...

Mühlemann et al show that the Vikings also suffered from smallpox. Image credit: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall.

Diverse Strains of Smallpox Virus Were Widespread in Viking Age, New Study Shows

Jul 25, 2020 by News Staff

Smallpox, caused by the variola virus, is one of the most devastating human diseases. Smallpox killed millions of people but drove Edward Jenner’s invention...

Team members entering Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. Image credit: Devlin A. Gandy.

Archaeologists Find 30,000-Year-Old Stone Tools in Mexican Cave

Jul 22, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists have uncovered 1,900 stone artifacts in Chiquihuite Cave, a high-altitude site in the Astillero Mountains in northern Mexico. DNA analysis...

A man described as ‘Abisha the Hyksos,’ leading a group of Aamu, a painting from the tomb of Khnumhotep II (circa 1900 BCE). Image credit: Macquarie University.

Rulers of Ancient Egypt’s Enigmatic Hyksos Dynasty Were Immigrants, Not Invaders

Jul 16, 2020 by News Staff

New research led by Bournemouth University archaeologists supports the theory that the Hyksos, the rulers of the 15th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, were not...

1.4-Million-Year-Old Handaxe Unearthed in Ethiopia

Jul 14, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Paleoanthropologists working at the Konso research area in Ethiopia have found a 1.4-million-year-old large bone fragment shaped into handaxe-like form. The...

The 1,900-year-old leather toy mouse from the Roman fort of Vindolanda. Image credit: Vindolanda Trust.

Archaeologists Find 1,900-Year-Old Leather Toy Mouse

Jul 7, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found a toy mouse at the site of Vindolanda, an ancient Roman military fort and settlement on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, northern...

Genghis Khan’s enthronement in 1206 CE from the History of the World by Rashid al-Din.

Archaeologists Confirm Site of Genghis Khan’s Winter Base Camp

Jul 6, 2020 by News Staff

Avraga, a Mongol Empire site located in an open steppe environment along the Avraga River in east-central Mongolia, was the winter base camp (ordū) of...

The Paleolithic settlement at Abu Hureyra in what is now Syria may have been destroyed 12,800 years ago because of a comet. Image credit: Jennifer Rice, Comet Research Group.

Cometary Debris May Have Destroyed Paleolithic Settlement 12,800 Years Ago

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

Fragments of an exploding short-period comet may have caused destruction of the Paleolithic settlement at Abu Hureyra in northern Syria about 12,800 years...

The pre-contact pipe analyzed by Brownstein et alю Image credit: Brownstein et al, doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2020.00133.

Archaeologists Find Traces of Non-Tobacco Plant in Pre-Columbian Native American Pipe

Jul 1, 2020 by News Staff

The 1,430-year-old basalt pipe from central Washington State, the United States, not only contained nicotine, but also had strong evidence for the smoking...

The ancient Maya city of Tikal in northern Guatemala. Image credit: Gerd Eichmann / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Archaeologists Find Toxic Chemicals in Water Reservoirs of Ancient Maya City of Tikal

Jun 30, 2020 by News Staff

New research reveals that two of the largest reservoirs at Tikal, an ancient Maya city in what is now northern Guatemala, were contaminated with high levels...

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